Maurizio Nannucci. Time, Past, Present and Future

The Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta presents
MAURIZIO NANNUCCI
TIME, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
A permanent work by Maurizio Nannucci
190 metres of neon to cast light on a heritage of inestimable worth
A redevelopment project completing
a new venture the Institute began in 2017

Opening

Friday 22nd November 2019 from 4.30 p.m.
Featuring an electronic music performance by Lillevan
San Pietro Courtyard, Pilotta Monumental Complex, Parma

TIME, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, the winner of the fourth edition of the international competition organised by the Italian Council, extends around four sides of San Pietro courtyard inside Pilotta Monumental Complex in Parma, one of Italy’s oldest historical complexes housing the National Gallery, Farnese Theatre, Archaeology Museum, Palatine Library and Bodoni Museum, creating a monumental new entrance to the building.

TIME, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE, the biggest permanent work Maurizio Nannucci has ever designed in Italy, will be presented and lit up on Friday 22nd November 2019 at 4.30 p.m. It is 190 metres long and features 55 letters made of neon glass from Murano illuminated by blue light. The work creates an ideal link between the complex’s history and the present day, between art from the past and contemporary art, and between the inside and outside of the building, inviting passers-by to slow down, read and think about the words and poetic image they project. A project that is democratic by its very nature and restores a fundamental sense of the value of art to the entire community, drawing in passers-by and engaging them in the architectural heritage round them and the treasures held inside the complex.

Under the art direction and co-organisation of the Lenz Foundation, the video artist from Berlin, Lillevan, by invitation of Maurizio Nannucci, will be performing a specially written piece of electronic music called Eventually Elusive – as part of a prestigious tour that will see him once again performing as a special guest at the 24th edition of the Natura Dèi Teatri Festival in Parma – that interacts with Maurizio Nannucci’s installation.

Maurizio Nannucci’s installation will also be supplemented by the publication of a journal with written contributions by Simone Verde, Annalisa Rimmaudo and a review of the artist and his work by Gabriele Detterer. 10,000 copies of the journal will be published and handed out free of charge in Parma a few days before the official opening and at The State Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg, at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen of Rotterdam, at Centre Georges Pompidou of Paris and MAXXI of Rome.

TIME, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE is a project carried out for Pilotta Monumental Complex with the support of the Italian Council (fourth Edition, 2018), a project designed to promote contemporary Italian art around the world under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s Governing Board for Contemporary Creativity and Urban Generation.

Maurizio Nannucci (Florence 1939) has been one of the most internationally famous exponents of Italian art for the last few decades. Ever since the mid-1960s he has been exploring the complex relations between art, language and image, creating ground-breaking conceptual works featuring the use of various media: neon lights, photography, video, sound, artist’s books and other publications. His experimentation, always open to interaction between different disciplines, explores the relationship between light, colour, sound and both real and imaginary space, which comes very much to the fore in his large neon writings like those designed for the facades of the Uffizi in Florence, Altes Museum in Berlin, Lenbachhaus in Munich (Bavaria) and, most recently, Maxxi in Rome.
During his over 50-year career he has worked and designed projects in partnership with Renzo Piano and other architects like Massimiliano Fuksas, Mario Botta, Nicolas Grimshaw and Stephan Braunfels. On several occasions he has been invited to take part in the Venice Biennial, Documenta in Kassel, and Biennials in Sao Paulo, Sydney and Istanbul. His work has been displayed in the world’s most important museums and galleries.